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The Super Bowl marks the final game of the whole NFL season.
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Winners of the Super Bowl raise the Vince Lombardi Trophy and get expensive Super Bowl Rings.
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As it stands, the Kansas City Chiefs are the favourites to win the next Super Bowl.
After a 17-game regular season, those who have enough wins in the bank go on to battle in the next stage of the NFL season: the playoffs. At the end of this knockout-style run, the Super Bowl marks the final game.
The Super Bowl is one of the most hyped-up events in US sports; the pageantry and betting opportunities drawing in viewers from around the world.
With Super Bowl LIX arriving on 9 February 2025 to mark the winners of the 2024 NFL season, here’s a look at the big game’s history, its winners, betting markets, halftime shows, and more.
History of the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl era retroactively began in the 1966 season, with what’s now known as Super Bowl III in January 1969 being the first game to officially carry the moniker.
Later, in 1970, the American Football League and National Football League merged to create the NFL and the original alignment of the conferences. So, the Super Bowl slightly predates the NFL itself.
In the decades since, 58 Super Bowl winners have been crowned while the NFL’s grand finale has gone from strength to strength as a massive, must-watch sporting event in the US.
Super Bowl Winners
In total, prior to Super Bowl LIX, 20 NFL teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl, with the most successful of them being the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Patriots, formerly the Boston Patriots, and the Steelers have both hoisted the Lombardi Trophy six times, but the Pats have been to the big game 11 times compared to Pittsburgh’s eight trips.
After New England and Pittsburgh, the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys both have five Super Bowl wins from eight trips, while the Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, and New York Giants have each won four.
To date, a team has only been able to win two Super Bowls in a row. The Packers, Dolphins, Steelers, 49ers, Cowboys, Broncos, and Patriots have all achieved this feat.
The Kansas City Chiefs are also in this group of back-to-back Super Bowl winners, but after starting the 2024 NFL season 6-0, many see them as potential history-makers with an unheralded three-peat of Super Bowl wins.
Super Bowl LIX Futures and Outrights
During the NFL’s regular season, and shortly after the Super Bowl has crowned its latest winners, American football fans turn to the Super Bowl futures markets.
They’re available throughout the season and focus on which teams will make it to the big game and which teams are in with a shot of winning the Lombardi Trophy.
For Super Bowl LIX, at this point in the regular season, the futures, or outrights, betting markets have the Kansas City Chiefs as the inevitable favourites to win the Super Bowl.
Still, in the Super Bowl LIX outright market, you can bet on any team with a mathematical chance of making it, which is why many look to the Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions, and some even consider the Chicago Bears.
Also among the outright markets for the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl LIX Exact Forecast. With these bets, it’s all about calling the two teams that will face each other in the big game.
Which Teams Have Never Gone to the Super Bowl?
Only four teams have never gone to the Super Bowl. Those four are the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, Detroit Lions, and Cleveland Browns.
However, that list comes with a slight caveat. Prior to the forging of the Super Bowl era, the Browns and the Lions both won the NFL Championship four times.
Which Teams Have Never Won the Super Bowl?
While making it to the Super Bowl is the aim of every team, coming away with nothing can be just as disappointing as not even making it past the Conference Championship game.
In this bracket, along with the four teams that have never gone to the Super Bowl, we find the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengals, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Los Angeles Chargers, Arizona Cardinals, and Tennessee Titans.
All eight of these teams have been to the Super Bowl but couldn’t quite get over the line. In the case of the Bills and Vikings, four trips to the big game ended in disappointing trips home.
Super Bowl Betting Markets
Once the Super Bowl’s competitors from the NFC and AFC have been decided, the NFL betting will open up with all of the usual markets, including the moneyline, spread, total points, player props, team props, and more.
Along with all of these more serious game lines, many go on the hunt for novelty prop bets.
For the Super Bowl in 2023, for example, you could bet on Rihanna’s first song, guest appearances, and odds on the singer announcing her pregnancy during the show.
Other common novelty props for the Super Bowl include the length of the national anthem, the colour of the performer’s attire, the colour of the Gatorade bath, the result of the coin toss, and more!
Super Bowl Halftime Show
The halftime show is what makes the Super Bowl a huge event for crowds beyond American football fans, and at Super Bowl LIX, it’ll be Kendrick Lamar taking to the stage at halftime.
A celebrated artist throughout his career, Lamar surged to prominence yet again this year with the song Not Like Us, which ended up being the coup de grâce in his dispute with rapper Drake.
Having performed Not Like Us five times in one show earlier this year, there’ll almost certainly be novelty props on him performing the hit track multiple times at Super Bowl LIX.
Lamar has some pretty big shoes to fill, though. Last year, Usher set a new record for Super Bowl halftime viewership in the US, seeing a massive 129.3 million tuning in.
How Much are Super Bowl Rings Worth?
Super Bowl Rings – which are given to the winners of the Lombardi Trophy on the playing squad, the coaching team, the front office, executives, owners, and some former players or staff members – are said to be worth up to around $50,000 each.
As much as $7,000 of this cost per ring is subsidised by the NFL for the team to create 150 rings, so the Super Bowl-winning franchises are often footing a bill of at least $23,000 per ring after raising the Lombardi Trophy.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Adobe*
